composer, musician and academic based in canberra

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Making Waves playlist

The ANU New Music Ensemble’s 2015 recording of my Percussion Ensemble (2010) was featured on this month’s ‘Making Waves’ playlist.

This playlist was curated by my Brisbane-based colleague, Mark Wolf, who wrote:

“Whether gripped by the unfolding drama of a new novel, or immersed in the onscreen action of an epic film, or even stimulated by listening to an engaging piece of music, have you ever enjoyed the experience of an effortless concentration so deep that you lose your sense of time?

“The works featured in this playlist all exhibit a paradoxical timeless quality. Each composition is connected with a temporal process, varying in nature from structured improvisation, ‘mobile moment form’ and slowly evolving spectrums of sound, all supporting temporal independence and ensemble freedom. Temporal manipulation is also observed through the exaggeration, expansion and fragmentation of musical time and events influenced by the natural world and architectural spatial design. These pieces are all in some way temporally ambiguous, successful in challenging the listeners’ perception of chronometric time.”

From the organisation’s ‘about’ page:

Making Waves is a monthly series of curated playlists streaming one hour of quality, new composed music. Founded in 2015, Making Waves shines a spotlight on the music of Australian composers. Fresh playlists are released on the first day of each month and older playlists are made available all year round via our archives; perfect for those with just a few minutes to explore one track or for hours perusing a myriad of diverse sound-worlds.

The project hopes to offer wider exposure to emerging composers, their music and the talented performers who champion it. We also hope to provide an easy-to-access platform for listeners to sit back and enjoy a curated hour of exciting new music or explore our living composers more actively. The playlist themes (and media through which they’re shared eg. Soundcloud, YouTube) will evolve each month depending on the content received directly from our talented composers. We acknowledge that Making Waves has the potential to expand in many directions and into many mediums, such as podcasts. We’re always thinking of the future, so if you have an idea or a wish for us, please feel free to leave us your feedback via the Contact page.

At its core Making Waves is a curated listening space. In 2016 we’ve branched into producing our own content through a special project, Making Conversation, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign. Making Conversation: Australian Composers Project will be a series of podcasts and vodcasts presenting the human side of living Australian composers, to be made available on popular audiovisual and social platforms in mid-2017.

If you are an Australian composer or a composer with ties to Australia (eg. you have studied here) who would like to have works featured in a playlist, you can find out more about Making Waves and send us your recording links via the Submit page. All submissions welcome! Non-Australian composers are also welcome to apply and will be kept on file for any special edition playlists. For more information you might like to check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

Listeners, we encourage you to explore current and past playlists and discover more about our featured composers. Follow us via email, WordPress, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.